Delhi Assembly panel flags gap in riot relief: Report

Usman Ali's eatery in Gokulpuri was stripped bare of furniture during the Delhi riots. He received a compensation of Rs 750. He claims that today his business has gone down by 40 per cent and he is not even able to afford the rent. Many like Ali, have been granted these 'mismatched compensations', according to a report by The Indian Express.

Over six months after the Delhi riots, the state government is now facing charges of delays, mismatches and false rejections over relief and compensation provided to the victims.

DH independently could not verify the report.

The Delhi Assembly's Minorities Committee has expressed displeasure over Delhi Police not providing it copies of FIRs related to riots in the northeast district and directed the home secretary to seek an explanation from the force.

According to the report, discussing in detail the issue of compensation for the riot victims, the committee reviewed 50 cases of rejections and found at least 30 cases of mismatch between claims and amount sanctioned.

Communal clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control in northeast Delhi on February 24, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

As per the report, so far, over 900 out of 3,200 claims of compensation have been rejected by the government and it has cleared 1,526 claims, disbursing compensation of about Rs 19 crore. However, claims of significant gap between the amount approved and the compensation claimed by the victims prompted the panel to take up the matter.

The Revenue Department officials during the meeting said that the compensation policy “needed more clarity, the absence of which is leading to a lot of confusion” even after the Delhi government had earlier assured a compensation of up to Rs 5 lakh in case of damage to uninsured commercial units and Rs 1 lakh in case of complete loot and Rs 50,000 in case of partial loot.

“On the ground, a person claiming complete loot of say Rs 3 lakh will get Rs 1 lakh. But if a person says his shop was partially looted of Rs 6 lakh, he will only get Rs 50,000. The policy has been drafted in such a manner. If all the cases are reopened for review, we will effectively be opening a Pandora’s box. That is simply not practical. The panel should fix the criteria and some cases can be reviewed accordingly. After all, the claims were reviewed by teams of SDMs and PWD officials. The entire exercise cannot be doubted,” a senior revenue department official said.

(With agency inputs)